rhymes revisited-Summertime

summertime and the living is easy
no
let me spit the truth
summertime and the living is hard
sure the fish are jumping but the cotton is high so im in the fields back bent to breaking
body for the taking but they sure won't get my soul
Some say they can't understand my faith and how in these circumstances i manage to seem like im whole
i say cuz i
know my chariot's coming forth to carry me home
and since i dont expect the Lord to do for me what i'm not willing to do for myself
Ima be wading in them waters soon enough, stars to guide me and prayers to keep my skin tough but my heart soft
never hardened
tho they tried to shake me and for sure thought they would break me
im still here
soon to be.... somewhere over there
Told somea the folk i trust to keep me in their prayers
Her ma is good lookin and her daddy's rich
yet they're telling her not to cry
I've cried so much i'm all out of tears.
Wells no longer spring forth from my eyes so the the only crying i'm doin is from that place deep inside
But ima rise up one of these mornings singing,
spirit souring so it skims the heavens and dances with clouds in the sky
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I was so excited the summer before junior high until my 'uncool factor' was unceremoniously thrust into my face
I know it's hard to believe but i was so NOT cool in junior high. Yeah i know ur staring at the screen with your mouth gaping open and evertything. SON...i was all tall and skinny and awkward. Hold up. It gets worse. i was the skinny, tall Haitian kid who had fucked up teeth from suckin her finger. Hadn't gotten rid of that accent she acquired from living in Haiti for three years.Hardly ever matched and never owned one pair of jordans until 8th grade. On top of that was quiet and kept to herself
Them kids in Sheepshead don't fuck around
hmmm
i got jumped twice
got in a coupla fights
was talked about on a consistent basis
i was Haitian so u know i had HBO(haitian body odor) or was carryin AIDS smdh
had a thing of gasoline thrown at me
got wood thrown at me after wood shop almost every wednesday of my second year in junior high
got pushed into oncoming traffic
do i really need to go on?

Kids can be fucked up which is why i dont buy into that 'kids will be kids' mess
I mean serial killers were kids once too right?
just sayin....
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When u gaze into my eyes,
tell me wat is it that you see?
They say the eyes
are the windows to the soul
Then brotha if so...
can u look past the rough edges
and hard lines
can you use your
x-ray vision to see
wat truly lies behind
the gangsta swagga and rolling of eyes
the making of me
Can you see into years past
to that scratched up table in the back
where she sits
head bowed praying
sometimes internally and at others
quietly but out loud
asking the lord
and other times saying
Dear lord can you hear me?
It's Diana
this life ain't always easy
the kids u know they tease me
have me sitting in the back alone
all
uneasy
can't quite figure out why they don't like me
must be cuz i aint got those timbs
or cuz my jeans are just too short for my limbs
could very well be cuz my jordans are two years old
this year got me beat down more than two-fold
and my home life you know its crazy
contemplated suicide
considered the maybes
didn't wanna go to hell
plus the voice in the bathroom said
put the razor down baby
So before you dismiss me
as a hardass bitch being pissy
look past the lies my mouth tells
search my eyes for that place where
truth
dwells
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Forbidden love was the name
I was a little black girl that lived two blocks down
from the cutest hasidic Jewish boy you ever did see (i imagine he musta been as cool as Matisyahu)

that summer, I stared longingly from my apartment window towards the general vicinity of his house.
I lived in the Midwood section of brooklyn
coupla blocks one way and you had the Jewish folk with the big ass houses
coupla blocks the other way and you found youself in the heart of ghetto ass Flatbush(said with love.FLATBUUUUUUUUUUUSH)
Anyway. I was bootleg friends with his lil sister. We'd say hi and play together on the sidewalk occasionally
{I know a lot of folk that got shit to say bout the Jews (i know that sounds bad. Insert: white person- "I know a lot of folk that got shit to say bout the Blacks but they're some of the coolest people i know)
but the ones i've known were nice as all hell
Folk need to stop hatin on my jew brothers and sisters
Why you mad they got the mansion? Step your game up}
Alas unrequited love is a bitch
oh and he's married now
it's sad. He coulda had him alladis...lol

My boy Matisyahu